Phase 3

This experience was very enlightening. I learned how to create lessons using technology. Another important skill I learned over the course of the semester is how to create these types of lessons, without it turning into a lesson about technology. I learned how to use the standards to guide what I should teach and what my lessons need to build onto. One important thing that I learned in this class is that sometimes you have to change your lesson in the middle of it to cover material that students need. Having one of my lessons backfire on me is going to affect my future teaching in a positive way. I will have an idea of what it can be like to have to change your lesson while you are teaching it. The feedback that we received from our peers after teaching was really insightful. It was really nice to have feedback right after teaching to have an idea of what happened while I was teaching.

Standard 1

        Teaching the lessons I create for this class really helped me to see how I can use technology to encourage student creativity and creativity. Knowing about the subject matter is very important. I figured this out when I was teaching my first lesson which was on negative exponents. I knew the basics about how they worked, but I found that I could not answer questions that my “students” were asking. Because this happened, I made certain that I studied the next lesson’s topic thoroughly before presenting the lesson. In my first lesson I did not use technology in the lesson because it was not something that would have made the lesson better. The second time we taught I did a lesson on the digestive system and we used the computer to watch videos, and I feel that this was a much easier way to hold students’ attention. Using both the technology and having students physically create something was what I think made my second lesson successful. Working with both the virtual world of the video and the physical words of drawing and writing our own stories really seemed to help the “students” connect with what I was teaching.

Standard 2

        This course, along with other courses I have taken in the College of Education have really helped me be able to develop and design successful lessons for elementary subjects. Working with technology is always great, and I really liked how this course showed us how to use technology to supplement lessons and not just teach lessons about technology. Using interactive programs such as kidsiration and pixie can go a long way into making an experience authentic for students. Using these tools is not only a great way to teach, but can be used as a great assessment tool as well. In one lesson that one of my classmates did, we took pictures of geometric shapes we found around the room. This was a great activity for kids to do, and collecting the pictures for assessment was a great plan.

Standard 3

        The lessons that I created throughout the semester realty show the growth I made in using technology. I did not use any type of technology at all when teaching the lesson on exponents, but in my lesson on the digestive system I have technology integrated in the presentations that the students would have performed if I were teaching an actual second or third grade class. My lessons included using tablets or camera to video tape the performances, uploading them onto a computer, and showing the students the finished product. Students were also able to use any resources they wanted to perfume the functions of the digestive system. When using this method for teaching and assessing, it is important to know that we have to be very careful when putting anything one the internet or on a computer that more than one person can access. I learned so much about digital citizenship in this class, and I hope that one day I will be able to ensure that my students are good digital citizens.

Standard 4

        Working with technology can be dangerous if proper “etiquette” is not followed. It is important that anytime we are having students use the internet for projects, papers, and research that we teacher them how to give the proper people the credit for the work. I believe that the biggest reason that plagiarism happens in schools is because kids are not taught how to properly cite sources. Doing anything digitally can have its problems. Things do not download, do not post, and sites go down unexpectedly. It is crucial that we teach our students how to think through any of these problems that they may face. Being digital responsible is something that I take, and believe that everybody should take very seriously. I feel that sometimes we don’t remember that whatever is said, done, or posted online is next to impossible to take back. It is very important that we, as teachers, teach our kids how to be responsible when using these types of technologies.